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Creutzer comments on Rationality Quotes July 2013 - Less Wrong
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Peter Cook
Not, perhaps, a rationality quote per se, but a delightful subversion of a harmful commonplace.
What do you mean by "harmful commonplace"?
The standard version is that in looking at the stars we realize our own insignificance. Apart from the sheer non-sequitur from "of comparatively small dimensions" to "insignificant" (to whom?!), such tropes may serve as a sort of moral anaesthetic: "Taking the Hubble View, does it really, fundamentally matter if I steal money from my investors?"
The general problem is that of making leaps from empty empirical facts to (almost certainly mistaken or self-serving) moral conclusions.
I notice I am confused, and I do get a sense of insignificance/wonderment when looking at the night sky.
Are there actually people who use the size of the universe to justify moral nihilism?
I don't think it's usually employed to justify moral nihilism so much as to tell people to shut up and not take human problems so seriously - when in fact human problems are all that matters. It strikes me as a secular cognate of the way religion frequently calls for "humility".
Maybe the specific example I cite is a bit farfetched, but the general principle of "ex naturalistic fallacy quodlibet" is sound.